Fear!

I am in the process of being approved for surgery. As I go through this I find I am almost paralyzed with fear. I know all of you had to be fearful as you considered WLS, but I would like to know how you feel about it now.  Was your fears founded or over blown?  I know every ones experience will be their own, but I feel like I need to get control of my fears as I obsess with every possibility of failure, complication, or death.  I have so many health problems that all my doctors have advised me to have WLS.  I know they are right but that doesn't make it any easier.  Can anyone help me bring my fear down to where it should be?

~ZZ

I did have fears, as most do.  I considered cancelling a few days prior.  What I kept coming back to, though, was that the risk of me becoming significantly disabled or dying from having so many health problems from being morbidly obese, were much higher than the risks associated with the surgery.  I am SO glad I went through with the surgery.  My recovery was uneventful and relatively easy, though I know some do have problems post-op.  However, even the majority of those who had problems will say later that they're glad they had the surgery.  My life has gotten infinitly better.  Most of my health problems are in remission, and I am living life rather than just existing.  I am not trying to sound like a Pollyanna, but I have not had one single regret.

The thing that helped me most was researching.  I read every book, blog, and post here in the months before surgery.  That helped to give me perspective and information.  I also started seeing a therapist which helped me to work on unscrewing up the ways that I think of things and obsess.  

if you did not have fear you would not be human

 but this is a very safe surgery if you have a good surgeon , that does lots of pre surgical testing to discover any problems , mine found a clotting problem that might have killed my Aunt and Mother (genetic passed by female )

 just sitting to long was dangerous for me and I did not know about it , I was given blood thinners and the surgery went great

 the few deaths you here about are coursed but people lieing to there surgeon about health problems or people that have very bad health problems and know there taking a bigger risk with the surgery

it is much more dangerous  to live being obese than having the surgery and losing most of your extra weight 

I lost over 175 lb since the beginning of my journey

I too did tons of research. The morning of surgery as I was being prepped, I was shaking because of being nervous. I was mostly worried about nausea since I don't generally do well under anesthesia. My surgery was a total of 6 hours. I have no recollection at all of recovery. I remember going into my room seeing my husband there waiting for me. Everything went so well and has continued to do so. I had very little pain, no nausea whatsoever and no complications. I am now 3 months out and have lost a total of 67 lbs (37 after surgery). But the best news, no meds. I had been on an insulin pump for several years. I haven't had one drop of insulin since surgery and I don't even have oral medications. I even played racquetball last week for the first time in 20 years. WLS is the AMAZING tool I needed.

I was very frightened about my surgery too. Mostly because of my age -- 63. I just don't bounce back like I did in my 30s. Two things overrode my fear: 1. As mickeymantle pointed out, not having the surgery was even scarier. I was dying by inches at my high weight. 2. I have one son, who's in his late 30s and has his own family and is doing very well. If anything had happened to me, he would grieve (I hope!), but he's independent and can get along without me. That was some comfort.

As it turned out, the surgery and the hospital stay was the easiest part of the whole process. My recovery was a bit rocky (not the fault of the surgeon) and now, at 3 months post-op, I've had to star****ching my food intake very carefully, which brings its own concerns.

If I had it to do over again, I would in an instant. It is major surgery, no question, but it's worth the risk.

psychoticparrot

I did have a lot of fear about the surgery, but I got to the point where I could see that my obesity was disrupting my movement so much that my life was going to be a downward spiral of less and less mobility, less and less activity until I died early from the obesity.  Then I was resolved to do it no matter what the risk.  As it turned out, the surgery was easy.  I had little pain, no nausea (thanks to lots of anti-nausea meds that I asked for).  I was pretty much back to normal in about a week -- other than being tired a lot for a few months. 

the process of getting used to the new stomach was not fun, but it was manageable.  It was at least 6 months before I had a feeling of "normalcy"  or that I could imagine myself eating like this the rest of my life.  But I did get there.

Now I feel great about the surgery, my weight and health, and my eating.  I am so glad I did the surgery and I think you will be, too.

best wishes,

Carol

I want to thank all of you for sharing your experience with me.  It is helping a lot.  I too am older (65) and my mobility is poor along with many more health problems but I know getting the weight off is paramount to any improvement I might dream to have. So I am at that jumping off point.  It is obvious I can't do it on my own after over 30 years of trying and just getting sicker and sicker.  I keep telling myself that WLS is my only hope for any possibility of any health recovery and anyone that I talk to who has had it is so glad they did it.  So I am trying to comfort myself with that.  Hearing of your success is very encouraging and I am getting the peace I need to proceed.  I must dwell on your positive thoughts.  Thank you so very much.

~ZZ